Canadian scientists receive grant for studying the spread of breast cancer

• The first multidisciplinary program of its kind in Canada focusing on metastasis of breast cancer has been awarded $3.36-million by the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance, B.C. Cancer Agency scientists said yesterday.
• He said the national study would use new scientific approaches and include researchers from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.
• "Cancer is a very complicated disease that is an interaction between the tumour and the host," Dr. Dedhar said.
• Patients die of their metastases, they don't die of the primary tumours like breast cancer in their breast."
• He said previous drug discoveries for cancer have been based on destroying primary tumours in laboratory mice.
• "When you go into clinical trials in people they already have metastases so it doesn't work," Dr. Dedhar said.
• "We're hoping that in three years we will have identified genes or protein that are required for the growth of breast cancer metastases in organs such as the lung, bone or liver.
• Dr. Dedhar said the $3.36-million grant would not be enough to complete the research, but would be enough to start the program.
• "We asked for $4.6-million, but we are glad that we received this funding, and whatever we discover we will leverage out into other grant applications," Dr. Dedhar said.
• "There is similar work going on at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, but they are asking different questions, like what are the genes in the tumour cells," Dr. Dedhar said.
• Researcher Christopher Overall of the University of British Columbia said yesterday that his work will one day help surgeons determine whether tumours have spread, where to operate and how effective treatments have been.
• "I am confident that this important program will lead to new therapeutic approaches that in future will help other women diagnosed with this devastating disease," she said.